Now begins the office building Adding mortar lines to the brick walls All the walls done Add the glass to the window frames Assemble the walls Completed office building On the layout To finish the model I need to add decals and weather the structures but that won't happen until we get some better weather and temperatures so I can seal the structures. I have to figure out the grade needed to reach the coal trestle and then either buy something or make something to carry the track. Lastly I need to build a base for the coal yard and determine the configuration since the as recommended placement will not work on the layout. For the next week I plan to build the Golden Valley Canning Company kit.
Finished the "skin" for the OHF South Wall and propped it up against the current foam board structure's 4 inch high walls. The upper doorway of the current structure is too low (visible at the top the upper doorway), but the new structure will have 4.5 inch high walls and the bottom of the upper doorway and the charging floor inside will be at 24 scale feet instead of the current 21 scale feet. I'm pleased with the sliding doors and recessed windows on the South Wall. Version 4 of the OHF South Wall with sliding door and bridge from ramp onto OHF Charging Floor by ppuinn posted Feb 1, 2022 at 7:47 PM This is a Google Maps 3D view of the OHF South Wall. Note the profile of the clerestory windows. Google Maps 3D view OHF South Wall by ppuinn posted Jan 25, 2022 at 4:29 PM I'm not yet content with the angles of the clerestory windows in my OHF "skin", and will probably snip off the top and replace it with a better version. All end-view photos of the OHF clerestory windows I took in 2005 and 2016, all screenshots of Google Maps Street Views of the Keystone OHF South Wall collected since 2007,and any pics of Keystone I found online or in local libraries, show a narrow (and very rough) diamond shape, but I can't seem to get the proper angles using 24 scale feet between the clerestory windows' vertical supports. The copies of 1970 Keystone blueprints I have show the South Wall is actually 150 feet long. On my layout, I've selectively compressed it to 120 scale feet and assumed the structure would have vertical support H-columns on 24' centers. I've experimented with a 1:3 and 1:4 roof slope and reverse engineered several types of roof truss configurations, but nothing seems to produce a profile that looks like the narrow diamond in the photos. Clerestory windows are supposed to let in light to the center of a large roofed area where the light from windows in the walls will not reach. The overhang of the diamond tips would seem to be so great that only light that had been reflected from the top of the 1:3 or 1:4 sloped roof to the clerestory ceiling (interior/underside of the clerestory roof) would be able to illuminate the Charging Floor on the west side of the OHF or the teeming floor on the east side of the OHF. Hmmm...maybe that IS the intended purpose of the design, because the interior space would always (24/7/365) have heat from the furnaces, and the extended roofline of the narrow diamond profile would only allow reflected light and never any heat from direct sunlight to reach the floor in the center of the building. Anyone have information or know of resources that confirm or contradict that speculation? I tried turning the 5 inverted conical smokestacks of the OHF and the 8 stacks of the reheating/soaking pits of the Blooming Mill from 1/2 inch dowels on my mini-lathe, but kept breaking the dowels. (I've turned delicate shapes in wooden Christmas ornaments, tops, and drop spindles for spinning yarn from wool, but all cross sections in those shapes were only less that 1/8 inch diameter for less than 3/8 inch, and the 2 to 3.5 inch stacks' maximum cross section is 1/4 inch and about half of the length is between 3/32 inch and 1/4 inch.) I'm going to try putting 1/4 and 1/8 inch dowels in a drill and sand the conical shape I want (instead of turning it) and then glue the dowels together end-to-end to get the final tank and stack profiles I want. Soaking Pit Smokestacks From SouthWest by ppuinn posted Feb 2, 2022 at 3:56 AM I'll be traveling in a few days, but will work on the "skin" for the OHF West Wall buildings and the OHF and Blooming Mill smokestacks when I can.
Got some good news and some bad news. I've been more than a little envious of everyone's progress while I've been getting my bandsaw running and rewiring my drill press. The good news is that I've got all that done. I was a little bit nervous about how much work the bandsaw would need to make straight cuts, but a little testing resulted in straight cuts within about .010" within a couple of feet- not bad for a more or less 70-year-old machine I paid $35 for a at the local flea market. I made the initial cuts in the first sheet of plywood, but then had foot surgery today. The bad news is that the project is dead in the water for at least a week while my foot heals.
I am trying out some 2mm high density foam material a roads after watching a YouTube video where the modeler got some good looking roads. After I get it all laid out it will get painted following his method. I wanted to slightly raise the areas between some of the tracks just a bit and found this same material to be the perfect thing. I am still waiting for ballast to arrive. The in progress RR rooming house kit is seen in the background. I have also orders 3 small house kits that will be part of the town. I would like to have an abandoned gas station and though the old Micro Engineering kit would be perfect. I thought I had one of those stashed away somewhere that I had bought assembled and used years ago but only could find the island and the part of the roof.
Staging Sandwich I started working on the subroadbed on the upper level at the peninsula in the general area of Grantsville. The two-track staging yard for the Bulltown Branch was put in place and checked to verify clearance and car capacity. This branch splits from the main south of Grantsville near Millstone and runs east along the Little Kanawha River through Glenville, Burnsville and Bulltown, terminating at Holly Grove. Two trains consisting of 2 locomotives, 18 cars and a caboose can be staged here. Staging for the Little Kanawha Sub and Buckeye Sub will be directly overhead, then the town of Grantsville will be overtop of that….. a hidden staging sandwich. Next, the subroadbed for the main south of Grantsville was get in place with a 2% climb from Millstone to the peninsula to clear the Bulltown Branch staging lead. At the top of this climb will be a carbon black plant, then a 33” radius, 180 degree curve to reach Grantsville. Then I put up the risers and subroadbed for the main track north of Grantsville. This is the highest point of the main track on the layout at 66 inches, where it levels off and runs along the backdrop around the perimeter of the layout to the upper staging. Finally, I managed to glue a substantial amount of cork roadbed down. I’m finally running out of materials recycled from the previous layout. At some point I’m going to start building switches again so I can back up and get the rest of the classification yard at Charleston done. We’ll see what next weekend brings. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Next structure is the Golden Valley Canning Company. The parts Mortar lines done Windows added Walls for the main building
Loading dock and outside stairs on main building. Walls for boiler house Loading dock main building and walls for boiler house Finished boiler house Finished main building Location the layout I still need to add the decals. I will do that after I can seal the buildings.
Seems we have a lot of structure building going on in this years party and this post will be all about structures. The railroad property right next to the yard is the most developed area right now in the town of Carlin. The pits for the bases have all been glued in place for the old tower, the yard office, and the crew rooming house and base scenery has been started in the area around them. There buildings will all be easily removable held in their pits with small magnets. Last week I received some 3D houses that I am really impressed with. These are based on the 1920's era Sears kit homes. Shown here along with the fire station from an old layout on the east side of town. Notice the white base under the 2 houses on the right. That is a scrap of fiberglass reinforced plastic sheet. I am planning to attach both those houses on that sheet as a mini scene that can be finished later and placed into a pit. Because of the weight and thickness of the sheet it won't need the magnets. Each of the houses consists of 4 pieces which will make painting easier. Today I washed all the house parts plus the yard office to get them ready for painting.
I worked on the configuration for the Coal Yard. Measure out the base Base down and painted. Coal trestle weathered Shed weathered Ramp to the coal trestle I realized after I started this post I forgot to get a photo of the office building weathered. I will get for the next update.
Well, it looks like this year's layout party is a bust on my end. Dr. did not remove the stitches or the restrictions for another 2 weeks. The good news is that I got my tools ready to go so should be ready to hit this hard when I'm finally ready to go again. Maybe in the meantime I'll work on some kits or something.
Best not to push it and follow doctors order. Working on kits sounds like a great idea. Years ago I had surgery on an ankle and spent 7 weeks in a cast and had to keep my leg up much of the time. Lucky I had quite a few projects to work on that could be done at the work bench and a wife that was good enough to make a couple of hobby shop runs for me to get a few little things.
Still no ballast so continuing with building the town. Recently made another run to the hobby shop to pick up some styrene strips and have finalized the position for two of the bases that buildings will be mounted on. The edges get established with the styrene strip and the base will set inside. So one base will be for the fire station and the other will be for two of the houses. I would like some small garages for the houses and asked the designer I got the houses from if he would do those. If not I can scratch build them or try one of the kits I've seen. The yard office has been painted and is getting the finishing touches now. The rooming house is coming along, it got painted, the roof got put on and now working on windows and doors. I plan to add an inside divider to both of these to block the view from going all the way through. Hopefully paints for the road will arrive soon and then I can start on that.
Followup from yesterdays post: Heard back from the designer that makes these houses. He is working on some garages so I'll keep an eye out for those on his EB store. I also called Arizona Rock & Mineral today about my ballast order and he said it will ship on Monday. Lastly, Amazon says my acrylic paint for road painting will arrive today.
Take the time to take care of yourself. We need you around for next year's party . My own progress has been limited to CAD time on the Coal Mine project as I haven't been home much. Got back from Phoenix helping the in-laws move into assisted living and were home less than a week and had to go back down as Dottie's mom ended up in the Hospital. Spent a week there trying to help out in any way possible and just got home a couple hours ago. With all the CAD time I've put in I'm close to finishing all the parts of the coal mine (lots of parts) except for the supports by the tracks. I think I'll continue while I have ideas in my head and kind of know where I want to go with it. I'll try and post pictures tomorrow of what I've done in the last couple weeks. Sumner
